Tomahawk, WI 12/18/2013 (BasicsMedia) – Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is gearing up for higher Christmas holiday sales. The company needs to see more transactions this season in order to win the confidence of shareholders. GRPN is also seeking to prove that it is not a passing-cloud-stock as some may have thought of it.

Christmas holiday offers the best opportunity for GRPN to prove its case and make its mark on the online deals map.

Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) sells deals on behalf of retailers and it shares in the revenue generated through its systems. The company delivers deals such as restaurants, travel, salon and more. It has recently added more retailers to its network after it changed its system from daily email deals to localized deals which can be obtained from its website.

By bringing customers to its website instead of sending deals to their inbox, GRPN is seeking to beat the barriers created by email providers with tweaks that sieve incoming emails into categories such as “primary”, ‘promotional” and “social”. This move impacted on GRPN’s transaction as it noted decline in its email opening rates.

In addition to beating the barrier, bringing customers to its own website helps GRPN to increase its deal offerings and also simplify the search for deals. Since making these changes, the company has noted increase in sales and revenue.

Mobile sales

Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is currently available in many countries and markets. In order to increase its general performance, the company is taking its transaction to the mobile platform. In its last reporting mobile transactions showed an overwhelming increase and the company has sought to invest in the same so as to take advantage of the opportunity.

Subscribers can now browse Groupon deals on smartphones and complete the transaction through the same. The company considers this a perfect way to reach more people given that today a lot of people are accessing the Internet through mobile devices.

Market expansion

Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) still has a lot of ground to cover in terms of market share. The challenge is that the charm of online deals is wearing out. People are no longer excited to open their emails in search of discounts. Searching deal-websites for discount is also losing is traction as retailers are trying to reach buyers directly through their own online platforms instead of relying on third-party promoters.

It remains to be seen how GRPN deals with this challenge of customer fatigue.

Competition in the industry is also a challenge to for GRPN. The opportunity that comes with promoting products and services on behalf of retailers who are ready to pay anything for the service has attracted many players. In the process, it is becoming hard for Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) to add more subscribers or win more retailers.

In this scenario, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is also seeing its revenue declining as its bargain power with retailers is reduced and the number of people visiting for deals also declining. However, its performance this holiday will be closely watched as it will reveal how much these challenges are impacting its business and if there are any opportunities going forward.

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Rahul has been in the media business for over twenty years both behind and in front of the mic and camera. Going to UW Stevens Point for communications, starting out in radio then moved into television with a regioal affiliate and finally embracing the web with BasicsMedia.com as a district manager and producer. He also runs his own small production house called Fin-Stocks Productions in Mumbai.